After the giant failure of Castlevania: The Adventure, Konami still had the guts to continue its handheld Castlevania line in 1991, by going back to the drawing board and fixing nany of The Adventure’s shortcomings. A design document from the Castlevania Anniversary Collection revealed that the team aimed to improve the following things: The player should move much faster; Attacking while on a rope should be possible; More level and enemy variation is needed; Sub-weapons should be present. ...| Game Boy on Jefklak's Codex
In 1989, The Nintendo’s handheld Game Boy made its debut in Japan, suddenly creating a demand for bite-sized adventures that could work on the go. Konami decided to translate their 1987 NES Castlevania franchise to the new platform, but in doing so, both the Belmonts and the vampires lost their iconic characteristics. In short, the game is one of the worst platformers I’ve ever played on the Game Boy. I don’t even think it’s worth devoting a review to this shitty Castlevania entry—a...| Game Boy on Jefklak's Codex
Castlevania Dominus Collection: The Holy Trinity Is Finally Complete. I suppose it was only a matter of time before the Nintendo DS Castlevania games would be joined in an excellent M2 Collection published by Limited Run Games. Now the holy trinity of Castlevania collections is finally complete: first Anniversary Collection, then Advance Collection, and now finally the Dominus one. It certainly feels great to have them all on the shelf in their red boxes! Via Jefklak's Codex| jefklakscodex.com
Once upon a time, about 23 years ago, Konami released three delightful Metroidvania-style Igavania/beyond-Classicvania Castlevanias—what’s in a name?—on the Game Boy Advance. All three GBA games are well-praised and everyone knows the first two release were just a test for Konami to then release one of the best games ever made: Aria of Sorrow, obviously. The first game, Circle of the Moon, a 2001 launch title, was criticized for its lack of colour and contrast on the non-backlit origina...| Retro Gaming on Jefklak's Codex
Satoe Terashima’s fabulous Vampire Killer, which is the track that plays during the first stage of Castlevania on the NES/Famicom. Castlevania is a gothic-horror themed action-platformer deve…| caffeinated pixels
Dead Cells & Return to Castlevania. With its latest DLC, the world of Dead Cells recently merged with the world of Castlevania, and as a ‘vania nut myself, reading all these glowing reviews, I simply had to take a peek. Unfortunately, I came back disappointed, although to be honest, it’s not entirely the game’s fault, as I my brain simply refused to register the term roguelite on the back of the cover. To me, the genre can very much be hit or miss, and as far as Dead Cells is concerned,...| jefklakscodex.com
Castlevania Portrait of Ruin Review. Castlevania games tend to pop up each year on Nintendo’s Handheld platform. The last entries: Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow, followed the story of Soma, who mysteriously inherited Dracula’s dark abilities. Via Jefklak's Codex| jefklakscodex.com
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Switch Review. One year later, Ritual of the Night is still unplayable on the Nintendo Switch. Numerous patches later, the game still stutters and crashes, with its most popular screen being the loading one. We’re off to a great start here… Via Jefklak's Codex| jefklakscodex.com
Super Castlevania IV Is Still Super. It’s hard to believe that a game such as Super Castlevania IV—stuffed with amazing moments, superb Mode-7 graphical effects, and thrilling soundtrack—is already 32 years old. It’s Konami’s first attempt to boost the Castlevania genre from 8-bit to a 16-bit console, and most of the time, the choices made were spot on—and still are. From the moment you enter the first castle gates, until the drawbridge slowly closes and the Theme of Simon Belmont...| jefklakscodex.com